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Pandemic exposes loopholes in Panchkula’s public health care system
District is completely dependent on private hospitals for critical care, the very hospitals that were later indicted for overcharging
The Covid-19 pandemic has exposed the vulnerability of the public health care system in Panchkula, which is completely dependent on private hospitals for critical care.
These are the very hospitals that were later indicted one after another with complaints of overcharging. So far, 14 notices have been issued in this regard.
Dental surgeons were trained for RT-PCR, AYUSH doctors managed patients in home isolation, and only one intensivist managed the ICUs.
In the absence of any public tertiary care hospital, and Chandigarh’s Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) refusing to take patients during the beginning of the pandemic, Panchkula had to make last-minute arrangements. Tie-ups were done with private hospitals, 20-bed ICUs in general hospitals were made functional, and a molecular lab was set up.
General hospital alone unable to deal with caseload
Panchkula civil surgeon Dr Jasjit Kaur, who took charge a few weeks ahead of the pandemic, said: “As the general hospital alone was not adequately equipped to deal with tertiary care patients, we had to heavily rely on the private sector.”
She said that if there was a public tertiary care institution in the district, they would not have to rope in the private sector for ICU support. “For tertiary care, if not 100%, then about 80% dependency was there on the private hospitals, because the general hospital could take only 18-20 patients in ICUs,” she said.
The Panchkula district has only 109 doctors under regular category and hardly 15-20 on outsourcing under the National Health Mission. There are 25 dental surgeons, 103 staff nurses, 13 nursing sisters, 27 lab technicians, and Group D is 253.
Dr Kaur said that they need “at least double the number of specialists and triple the number of nurses. There is a great shortage of staff nurses. We would have done much better had we had adequate manpower and infrastructure.”
Admitting that the number of staff was “too less”, Dr Kaur said: “I am always told that you (Panchkula) have surplus staff, when compared to other districts of Haryana. We have struggled and only we know how we tried to manage.”
Dental surgeons, students trained for testing
Dr Kaur shared how in the absence of enough manpower, they had to train dental surgeons, dental students, even nurses for RT-PCR and sampling.
There was only one intensivist, whereas at least five are needed: “So, we had to train anaesthetists to do this job. Even though we did not have staff nurses trained for ICU, we didn’t have ICU technicians, physicians for ICU.”
Dr Kaur said: “We kind of improvised, whatever we could do, but yes, health infrastructure in terms of beds, tertiary care, manpower could not be said to be enough for this pandemic.”
She added: “All said and done, private hospitals have done a wonderful job in saving many lives. Let’s not be immediately thankless to them.”
Panhckula MLA Gian Chand Gupta said: “In 2015, 25 acre land in MDC-5 was approved for construction of a medical college, but preference changed after the Prime Minister started promoting AYUSH hospitals. We allotted 20-acre space for an AYUSH hospital, and its construction is about to begin.”
“For tertiary care services, we are going to have two more big private hospitals. Soon, auction will be held. As far as the medical college is concerned, in the next two years, work will begin, as CM had once mentioned about it,” he added.
The virtual foundation stone of the 200-bed mother and child care block at the Sector 6 civil hospital will be laid by the chief minister on June 10 at 11am, and will be showcased from the PWD Rest House, Panchkula.
